In addition to numerous freshwater fish farms, Slavonia now has its first processing facility.
The first fish processing plant in Slavonia, in Čačinci near Orahovica, in which the Orahovica Agricultural Company invested 25 million kuna, with nine million kuna being co-financed by the IPARD program, was opened on Friday, reports Poslovni.hr on December 16, 2016.
The new plant has the annual capacity of 3,000 tons of fish. It will employ 15 workers, and its products will be offered, in addition to the Croatian market, on the markets of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Poland, under the Panona Mare brand.
In addition to fresh fish, the facility will produce frozen and smoked freshwater fish. Special novelty will be chips made of carp. “After six years of restructuring and a lot of discussions, this project has definitely succeeded. But, this story about fish processing can also be something much larger than this. A major part of the financing came from EU funds”, said Agriculture Minister Tomislav Tolušić who officially marked the beginning of operations.
The state currently owns 23 fish farms with the total area of almost 13,000 hectares, and even if had twice as many I am sure we would be able to export it all, said Minister Tolušić.
“The answer to market demand and the accelerated pace of life are the main reasons for investing in this new facility, as well as the need of our customers to have finished and semi-finished products of superior quality”, said CEO of the Orahovica Agricultural Company Vlado Čondić-Galiničić.
Orahovica Agricultural Company is the largest producer of freshwater fish in Croatia. In 2015, it placed on the market more than a thousand tons of fish, of which 70 percent went to exports. The company currently has organized fish farming activities in fish farms with total area of 4,500 hectares, at Grudnjak near Orahovica, Lipovljani, Donji Miholjac, Pisarovina, Vrbovnjani and Kopačevo.
According to the register at the Ministry of Agriculture, the freshwater fish farming sector in Croatia includes 42 companies, with the total of 50 farms located in 18 counties. The most important types of freshwater fish are carp and rainbow trout.
